— Kevin Doherty, Client (Seller)I am the trustee of my parents’ Irrevocable Trusts and over the past two years Laurie has sold two modest condos in Boca Raton that were owned by the trust. Saying that Laurie sold the condos doesn’t really begin to give a complete account of what she has done to help me with these sales so I will add some of the details.
First, I live in North Carolina so while I have traveled to Florida to visit my parents and to see the condos for myself, I have only met Laurie in person twice. As a result all of the real work between us on the sales has been done over the phone and through e-mail. While this can be a difficult way to handle things, Laurie always made it work for me.
The first of the two units was more difficult to sell as it was not very up to date and it had a tenant in it. I asked Laurie to act as an intermediary between the tenant and me in order to ask her nicely to vacate the unit. Laurie got it done without my having to have any unpleasant conversations, and we were able to sell the condo.
Dealing with the tenant was only the first of the many things that Laurie did to help me that I considered to be beyond the ordinary duties of a realtor. In addition she arranged for and paid (I did reimburse her but she still took care of things right away without waiting for me to send her money…see how many people are willing to do that) various handymen, painters and other workmen to make needed repairs and improvements to both of the units that we sold.
All of the extra work that she did for me aside, Laurie worked tirelessly showing the units, holding Open Houses and making and answering phone calls from people who may or may not be interested, and who couldn’t believe that they weren’t getting a completely renovated condo for less than $200 thousand. She always remained patient and optimistic especially when I wasn’t and always lived up to the promise she had made. When I joked that I would bet that she would spend a lot more time and energy trying to sell the higher end homes that she specializes in….”I give every client the same effort regardless of the price of the house….that’s my job” I may not have believed her at first but I came to see that she was putting a tremendous effort into both of my sales and I have no doubt that Laurie means what she says.
Ultimately Laurie sold both units at prices that I was satisfied with (she also never encouraged me to accept a low-ball offer just to get it over with and move onto something bigger and better) so her work as a realtor has to be the highlight, her strongest point. But the things she did to help me with things I couldn’t take care of personally because I wasn’t able to be there, sometimes feel like what was most important to me because having sold other houses and condos I know that most realtors aren’t going to help in that way. But maybe the thing that Laurie did for me that meant the most was that she came to my mother’s funeral service last year. She didn’t just come in, say she was sorry, stay a few minutes and then leave as I have done myself a number of times, she came to the wake and service on a Saturday, stayed for the entire time, probably three hours…. And then she came out to the lunch that we had afterward, she spent her whole Saturday with my family, some friends and me. I don’t think that you can find another realtor who is going to do all that for you.
